########################################################
# sub notify_time_date can be called with two arguments
# to be prepended and appended to a formatted display:
#
#        '$arg11-Jan-99 at 01:10:49$arg2'.
#
# Arguments can be empty strings, or string of blanks
# for spacing, etc.  These arguments are expected to
# be part of the call to the sub, so we'll first see
# if they're present by using 'shift':
#
########################################################
sub notify_time_date {

    my ($msg1) = shift;
    my ($msg2) = shift;

    	# Some local/my variables to hold the time info

    my ($sec,$min,$hr,$mday,$mon,$yr,$timelet,$mon_name);

        # And some literals in %mnames for conversion
        # of that info into human-comfortable form

    my %mnames = (1,"Jan",2,"Feb",3,"Mar",4,"Apr",5,"May",6,"Jun",
    		7,"Jul",8,"Aug",9,"Sep",10,"Oct",11,"Nov",12,"Dec");

    	# We ask the system for the local time

    ($sec,$min,$hr,$mday,$mon,$yr)=localtime(time);

    	# Now we see if any time digits need a leading zero

    foreach $timelet ($sec,$min,$hr)
    {
        if ($timelet < 10) { $timelet = 0 . $timelet; }
    }

    	# And get our human-comfortable month name

    $mon_name = $mnames{$mon + 1};  # Perl counts from zero

    	# And finally notify the user at the console
        # of the time we began the current mail polling

    print "$msg1";
    print "$mday-$mon_name-$yr at $hr:$min:$sec";
    print "$msg2";
}